Almost nobody within 10 km of Ontario’s nuclear plants has anti-radiation pills because bureaucrats are bickering over who will hand out the drugs.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has recommended the mandatory distribution of potassium iodide (KI) pills to all residents within a 10-km radius of nuclear facilities. The pills, if taken immediately before or after a nuclear disaster, can help alleviate the effects of radiation poisoning.

But Ontario bureaucrats are delaying the process.

“This is a critical piece of our responsibilities of the public and I would hate to see it lost because of jurisdictional issues,” said Dr. Sandy McEwan, a member of the Nuclear Safety Commission and past president of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine. The circles in the map show the areas where pills should be distributed.

Two letters obtained by Canada.com show the province supports the pre-distribution of radiation-blocking potassium iodine (KI) pills, but is quibbling over who will do it.

The province wants the chief medical officer of health to take charge while the federal regulator wants nuclear facilities to send out the pills.

Meanwhile, nobody is actually sending out pills to the people who may need them.

Commission President Michael Binder slammed Ontario officials at a hearing in Ottawa Thursday, saying they’re unnecessarily delaying a necessary public safety measure. He called out the health ministry for failing to send anyone to the hearing and told provincial officials the commission expects the pills to be sent out by December 2015 or it will step in.

“We will not accept a forever paralysis by analysis.”

“Our preferred outcome is that the Ontario government would be the lead in this… but we will not accept a forever paralysis by analysis,” Binder said.

Health Minister Eric Hoskins said in a statement that Ontario shares the federal government’s goal of ensuring all Ontarians have access to potassium iodine pills. He said The Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management leads nuclear planning but didn’t address the allegations of delays.

“We are working closely with both municipalities and nuclear facilities on plans for the distribution of Potassium Iodide (KI) pills,” he said.

Paired with the pill distribution, though, is the need for a public education campaign to teach people what they should do with the pills once they get them. That information is also sorely lacking in the areas around nuclear facilities.

“A number of participants knew about these [KI pills], but none had these pills on hand at home for their household, and few knew that they were made available for free at certain pharmacies,” the report states.

“It is obvious that there is a similar lack of awareness and lack of uptake of KI by households in advance of a potential accident and therefore pre-distribution is the only reasonable approach,” the Canadian Environmental Law Association states in a submission to the commission.

Ontario is the only province in which the KI pills aren’t distributed within a designated range around its generating stations in Kincardine, Pickering and Ajax. Canada’s only other two nuclear power plants, in Quebec and New Brunswick, both distribute the pills every five years within an eight- and 20-km radius respectively. In countries around the world it’s standard practice.

KI pills block radioactive iodine from invading the thyroid, the most sensitive part of the body to radiation. The pills do not protect against other effects of radiation and can have severe side effects, so they should not be taken except in an emergency.

Ontario Power Generation has 700,000 KI pills stashed in the event of an emergency. And Bruce Power 20,000 pills stored for employees and residents. Both corporations have also raised concerns about who would be responsible for distributing KI pills in the event of an emergency.